New cat owner needs advice!

Hello,
I've recently adopted two 4 month old kittens who were found in someone's backyard. The foundation I adopted them from recommended a very expensive, all meat, dry cat food called Orijen, and wet food as well.

They have terrible diarrhea and I don't know what to do! It must be the food. I tried Iams kitten and they ate A LOT more of it and had a lot more stool. So I figured that was bad. So I went back to the Orijen. I know it's bad to swtich like that, but I did do it gradually. A friend said Iams is not good, so I felt better going back to the Orijen. But the diarrhea!! The litter smell is overwhelming when I get home from work.

So some other foods that they recommend are Wellness, Evo, and Innova.
I stopped the wet food altogether because I thought that couldn't be good when they already had diarrhea.

Does anyone have experience with these foods? I really don't know what to do. I bought the expensive stuff. They eat very little and then get terrible diarrhea. Should I try some regular normal food like Kitten Chow? That goes against everything that I've read, but right now, I will try anything!!

Any advice would be appreciated, especially if you have experience with the high-end brands listed above.
Thanks!!

Have you had tests for parasites?? Giardia?? cociddia ??

Orijen being a grain free could be too rich... at that pt I suggest basic food like sensible choice , natural choice or california natural

If you've not had them for long, the stress of moving may be causing the runny stools. If the place you adopted them from fed them Orijen and didn't mention any digestive problems, I would guess the food is ok for them. I agree with Sharky that a vet visit and some tests would be a good idea. Other than that, I'd keep them on the food they're used to for a while longer and give them a probiotic. If the tests are all negative and the stools don't firm up, I would then try a different food, but I would avoid chopping and changing too much as that in itself is likely to cause upset stomachs. Maybe feeding them plain chicken for a day or 2 then gradually re-introducing the Orijen might help. Orijen is a good dry food, but it may be too rich for your cats.

Hi,

Welcome to the forum - Hope your kitties get over 'the pies' soon.

Thanks for the advice. When they were rescued they were only in their foster home for 3 days before coming to my home. There was no mention of diarrhea from the foster Mom, but they had also just been fixed, so I don't think she really had them long enough to notice a problem. They have been de-wormed.

How long should I give this food a try? Should I just finish off the bag and then try something new?

There was no diarrhea when I fed them the Iams. But I stopped because I was told the Orijen would equal less stool in the box. At least Iams didn't give them diarrhea!

Should I be giving them wet food at this point, or will that make it worse?

Any advice is appreciated!!!

Wet food is easier to digest than dry////


De worming often take two or three deworming and the othe items mentioned would not be killed off by wormer ... I would schedule a vet visit first ...

If they were fine on Iams then : try to reintroduce the origen mixed with iams ... try a simplier food

My vet told me that some cats get diarrhea from wet food - that is true in Joey's case, he can have only a small amount and eats "crunchies" the rest of the time. He's going on 4yrs now, so I guess it's just his digestive system.
As for the diarrhea in your girls, you could try giving them a blend of boiled chicken and rice mushed up. The rice helps to form their stools. And switch them to the crunchies. I had tried feeding Evo, but even my ferals found it too rich, so I switched back to Innova. And I have fed Purina Kitten Chow with good results. It's whatever will work for their systems.

Forgot to add - re: litterboxes, try to give them at least two each, so they can use one for pee and the other for poop. It really helps keep the smell down
Also, to cut costs, I use a blend of chicken-feed "krackettes" and Champion Breed Natural Scent or CB unscented clumping. It allows me to give extra-deep litter, which makes it easier for the cats to cover and easier for me to scoop, and the grain scent seems to absorb foul odors remarkably well Plus, you can afford to throw out the litter more often without feeling the pinch in your budget.

I had a similar experiance with my Gizmo

I had a lot of problems with dry foods with him, I tried about 4 or 5 brands and he had horrible poos, HORRIBLE, and his farts

I took him compelty off the dry and now both my boys are happy and healthy on an all wet diet (wellness and merrick, mostly the grain frees)

Orijen is incredibly rich and some cats just don't take to it well. If you overfeed it at all, diarrhea is common. Read the feeding guidelines on the package, subtract 20% from the recommended amount, and feed them that. If that still does not clear up after 10-14 days, you may need to switch foods.

If the Orijen is too rich, Evo is likely to also be too rich. Maybe try Felidae - they have a cat/kitten version that is reasonably high-quality, not as expensive as what you are feeding, and often well-tolerated by the majority of cats. Wellness could also be worth a shot, though is richer than the Felidae.

Moist IS eaiser to digest than dry, so while instinct says to cut that when a cat is having diarrhea, feeding moist is often the quickest way to get a positive (or negative) reaction when changing foods and may give you a better idea of what is working.

If you have not taken them to the vet, do that before anything else. Take a stool sample with you that can be tested for parasites - most vets will let you drop off the stool sample the morning vefore or the day before the visit so that test results will already be available when you meet with the vet.

I am trying reducing the amount of food per servingto 1/2 cup a day for canned and 1/2 dry for a 6 month old 7 pound kitten and a 8 month old 10-11 bpound kitten:

I have a kitten I adopted from the shelter when she was 8 weeks, and the shelter had her from 4 weeks. Igave her wellness canend grain free kitten and she had major huge amounts of clay orange diarrhea. I cleared up by changing off that food to Halo's Spot's stew dry sensitive, and I also had Wellness Core Grain Free and Before Grain. Thel ong and short of it is that her diarrhea kept coming back and I believe it was because I kept changing food wihout keeping track of it. Now she is on Hills i/d because the vet wanted to get her on something long enough so she could see her reactions. The diarrhea is now soft stool, but still very smelly until a couple of days ago.

I have not proven this yet, but the vet asked me to reduce the amount of food to 1/2 and 1/2 cup dry food day for both of my kittens.

The one, Cookie, who has the stool problems had a pretty big tummy and the tests came up negative.

Cookie also has litter box issues which I believe have to do with a very smelly box from the diarrheaand soft stool.

Even though I cut back the food, I would give them extra when I thought they were board or humgry.

Now I am standing fast. I had locked up one in the bathroom so I could litter box retrain her, and the first three days the place really smelled. It smelled even when I brought samples in a bag with double zip.

The end of my story is see what happens if you cut back on the amounts